Day 12 - Massachusetts

Today is going to have to be kind of short. We are in an area that has no Wi-Fi and very little cell coverage. Plus sitting outside the tent, I am getting eaten alive by mosquitos.
We rode about 50 miles today. It was a pretty hilly day as well. We sure did ride through some beautiful areas. There were some homes that were magnificent.  They had these areas to jump the horses over the fences and stuff (I can't figure out how to spell drasage?? ) so it must have been a wealthy area.
The only place to get groceries was in a town about six miles from the campground so we had to all gather there on our way here so that we could all help carry the groceries. That is the first time that we have had to do that. We are also having a hard time finding campgrounds that are open. The place we were going to stay at tomorrow is closed because of the hurricane.  They say some places we are heading into have no electricity yet. Dave, our leader, spent much of today trying to find a place. I guess we are staying at this older cheap motel. That could be an experience. We may have to sleep in the sleeping bag.
We ride in three states tomorrow. We are currently in Massachusetts and we ride across the corner of Rhode Island and we will then be in Connecticut.

Day 11 - Boston

We went into Boston today on the commuter train which left out area at 7:30. It took the train about an hour to get into Boston. It did cause me to think about if that was my lot in life, that is to commute to work an hour in morning and night. It is interesting to watch people commute. Not many want to talk and they are pretty involved in the newspaper or book or now thier ipad and news or movie. It seems that everyone is plugged into something and pretty much zoned out of life around them. We are currently riding the train back from Boston and I am plugged into my own zone writing this blog.

It was a nice visit to Boston. We saw Fenway Park and also walked along the freedom trail which went by Paul Revere's home and the church in which the lantern was hung calling for the Boston tea party. I think the highlight for me was touring the USS Constitution.  That ship was commissioned in 1796 and is the oldest currently commissioned, floating ship in the world. I am sure it has had extensive renovation, but it is an amazing looking ship.

Touring with a group of 14 people is much like touring with the family. It seems to take quite a bit of time to get everyone's opinion gathered and to make a decision. A few times during the day the group had to take a break and visit a pub or two in Boston to fuel up as well. One such pup they (we in a way, I just tag along) visited was supposed to be the oldest bar in America. It was supposed to be the place some of the founding father's would visit after discussing independence from Britain.

I also am very tired of walking. It seems walking today was harder than riding that bike. I guess it is just using different muscles.

Day 10 - Back on the road again

Today actually turned out to be another wonderful day of riding.  We decided to get an early start today because we had about 66 miles that we had to cover.  When we awoke at 6:00, the skies were clear and we had some winds blowing, but it turned out to be a great day.  There was a lot of debris on the side of the road that we had to watch out for and there were a couple roads that were closed due to fallen trees and power lines and poles and we had to navigate around things, but things went surprisingly well.  I am getting more used to the riding routine and I am sure that I am getting stronger and it just seems to be going better for me to get through the day.  I did get another flat tire today.  I think I am leading the group in flats.  I did dig the culprit out of the tire.  It was a triangle shapped piece of metal that I picked up from somewhere. We are now in Littleton, Massachusetts.  New Hampshire went by pretty fast.  We rode through just the corner of it.  Littleton is located about 40 miles outside of Boston.

After two nights in the hotel, I am not looking forward to the tent tonight.  It was nice to have the bed.  I have a hard time getting comfy in the tent.  I pretty much have to be exhausted.  I am sending a picture of my home away from home.  I purchased a single person, lightweight tent for this trip and wish I would have sprung for a two man tent.  It really is pretty small and allows no room to store my panniers when things are wet.  All of the people I am traveling with have two man tents and they work a lot better.

We are heading into Boston on the train in the morning so we will not be riding.  I am excited to see the city.  I will let you know how that tour goes tomorrow.

Day 9 - Huricane Irene

It was so nice to sleep in a regular bed.  Really, I think that camping out each day is the hardest part of this trip so far.  Last night we went as a group to a pizza joint and had dinner and had a meeting to decide how we were going to rearrange our schedule due to the storm.  Right now it looks as though we still might get to Boston.  We will ride tomorrow where we were going to ride today and then we will take the commuter train into Boston if wanted.  I am pretty excited about that.

When Irene arrived here in Exeter, it was pretty much just a tropical storm.  It did rain throughout the night and today rained rather heavy this morning.  I am glad that we didn’t have to be out in it.  As we were eating breakfast today in the hotel the power went out and remained out for about 6 hours.  John and I went for a little walk a few minutes ago and didn’t see any more damage that an afternoon thunderstorm in Idaho does many times during the summer.  There were branches on the ground and leaves, but that was the extent of things here.  It will make for some debris dodging the next few days on the bike, however.  It is my first experience to weather a hurricane and am glad that it settled down from what they thought it might so.  I hope that all along the eastern seaboard it has not done a lot of damage.

Out on our walk, I discovered that this town of Exeter is home of the pretty famous Phillips Exeter boarding school.  Since 1970, it has boarded girls as well as boys and has been a feeder school in a way for Harvard.  It was pretty neat looking over the campus.  There are some pretty old buildings.  I don’t know how any family could send their kids away at 9^th grade.  I am sure happy that we were able to share those years with our own kids.  They leave too soon anyway, right?

This town was also an early player in this countries fight for independence. It was founded in 1638 by the Rev. John Wheelright.  Exeter was one of the four original towns in the colony and following New Hampshire’s provisional declaration of Independence on January 5, 1776, it served as the capital of the new state during the American Revolution. This is a building in which George Washington was entertaines in November 4, 1789.

I thought since we were going to be sitting around today, that I might find a church and attend their meetings.  I did call the local bishop here and left a message and he gave me a call back this morning that all the local wards had canceled their meetings because of the storm.  I guess that was good considering the power went out just after he called.  However, it would have been nice to be able to be in church.

Day 8 - Waiting for the Storm

What a beautiful day of riding.  We rode from Wells, Maine to Exeter, New Hampshire, which was about 50 miles.  We rode along the Atlantic beaches of southern Maine and it was just wonderful. There were some beautiful homes and I love to smell the ocean.  There were a lot of tourists in that area, I am sure enjoying a last weekend before school starts here Monday. We then rode inland to Exeter and it will actually be a while before we are back along the Atlantic Ocean.  I was riding along at about 10:30 and saw a stand selling lobster rolls.  On the coast in Maine you see these for sale all over the place and decided I better try a “Maine lobster roll” before we left Maine.  They toast a bun and put pieces of cold lobster in and give you a container of butter to drizzle over it.  They also give you a side of coleslaw and it was actually pretty delicious.  Wish you were all here to enjoy it with me.

The weather was beautiful as well.  It was slightly overcast all day, but until now (about 5:30) it didn’t rain all day.  It is slightly sprinkling outside now, but it doesn’t look like hurricane weather at all.  They are saying the storm should go over this area at about 10:00 am tomorrow.  We are staying in the Hampton Inn in Exeter and are here just to wait out the storm.  We won’t be going anywhere tomorrow and hopefully will leave Monday to continue our journey.  It looks like we will not be going to Boston because of the time that we must wait for this storm to pass.  I was looking forward to seeing Boston as there is a lot of history there that I wanted to see.

I am rooming with John who is from London.  He has done many of these types of trips before.  He rode the Pacific Coast and the Tetons to the Pacific coast in this country and has cycled Tibet, Pakistan, Laos and a bunch of other countries that I don’t remember.  He pretty much goes on one each year. His wife works for Harvard in Boston and teaches animation.  If you want to google Ruth Lingford, you can see some of her work.  The way John puts it, she does “feel bad” films, so be careful if you want to watch any of them.

Tomorrow I will let you know about the storm.

Day 7 - A Day That Keeps a Rider Riding

What a great day.  It rained pretty steady throughout the night and stopped about 6:00.  I actually slept really well.  That means that I must be getting pretty tired.  It is kind of odd here.  Even though it was raining, the night was rather warm.  There is one cyclist here that only brought a sheet sewed up like a sleeping bag insert and that is all he expects to use all the way to Florida.  I just laid on top of the bag for the entire night.  All of our tents and such were very wet and had to be loaded that way, but the skies were clear as we left camp for the day.  It was a beautiful ride today.  It was a wonderful break from the hills that we have had in the past.  We were a little inland and actually rode back toward the coast today and consequently rode a net downhill ride.  There weren’t many hills and not much wind and it was just great.  We rode a total of 40 miles and are now in Wells, ME.  Wells is one of the oldest communities in the Maine.  It was settled in 1643.  We haven’t seen much of the town today, but hope to visit a bit tomorrow morning.

As I was riding today, I passed a lumber yard that has a pile of plywood out front and had a sign on it saying,  “Hurricane Irene coming, are you prepared?”.  That felt a little eerie.  We are actually heading into Exeter, New Hampshire tomorrow (Yay, a new state) and will hole up in a motel while the storm passes over Sunday.  So that means two nights on an actual bed.  We do have to stay in the rooms, double occupancy, and most of the men snore, so we will see how that goes. One bad think about the unplanned stay is that we will probably have to miss our Boston layover.  We were to have a day to tour Boston, but to stay on track we will have to move on.  I was rather anxious to see the city.

Sunday School lesson #2 – As I was riding today enjoying the more level ride I began thinking about hills.  You know we ride at pretty much sea level for this entire trip.  I think the highest point that we ride is like 750 feet.  However, at one minute you are at 0 feet and then you are climbing to 250 feet and doing that time after time is pretty wearing.  It also takes 15 minutes to climb a hill and 3 minutes to go down, so it seems that you are always climbing.  Life can be the same way.  Going downhill is so fun and easy and fast, but if you go downhill, you must at some point climb back up to keep moving ahead.  Satan wants us to think that we can go through this life always enjoying a downhill ride of carefree, unending fun.  But he is wrong.  At some point for us to move ahead and accomplish things we must climb back up and that is where the work starts.  It isn’t easy to climb when we have ridden downhill for a while.  I think all of us have had to climb at times.  I know that God helps us climb as well, but there is wisdom in staying on level ground instead of looking for the thrills in this life that can make for some very hard days.  Wow, I better cut it out.  It is sounding like I am preaching a sermon.

I don’t think I mentioned that yesterday we visited the very first LL Bean store in Freeport Maine.  The store is huge.  It is pretty much a tourist attraction and there were a lot of people there.

This is what I see a lot of

The mosquitos are trying to eat me alive out here right now, so I am going to try and take cover in the tent.  Goodnight.

Day 6 - First day of rain.

I apologize for the “First” theme.  I am just experiencing a lot of firsts.  I have ridden in the rain before, but not carrying all that gear.  It really wasn’t that bad.  It didn’t come as a down pour and here in Maine it stays pretty warm when it rains.  I didn’t wear any special gear and just got wet.  Before the days ride was done, it had stopped raining and I was pretty much dry again when we arrives in camp.  My gear seemed to work well.  I have rain covers for the panniers and nothing inside was wet, so that is good.  There was a break in the rain and we hurried to get tents up before it started again.  I guess we have a hurricane coming this direction.  We are hoping it changes course and doesn’t bother us, but we will ride until we find out where it is headed.  If it does come through, we will probably hole up in a hotel until it passes.  We are in Sebago Lake, ME.  It is a beautiful spot right next to a pretty large lake.

Not much happened today.  We got up for breakfast at 6:30.  The people I am riding with are pretty anxious to get started.  They upped the time for breakfast.  I do think I could sleep in a little bit more, but you know how camping goes.  The morning comes pretty quick and it is a little more difficult to continue sleep when you are in a tent on the ground.  We had breakfast of the usual yogurt and cereal and as I was loading the bike, I noticed that the front tire was low on air and knew it must be leaking.  I guess another “first flat tire”.  It took about 20 minutes to get that fixed and I was on my way.  We traveled about 48 miles, which felt nice compared to yesterday.

I did a little experiment today.  We have some older, seasoned riders that are with the group and I was real curious how they ride during the day.  They don’t ride together and they are by no means the first to arrive back in camp, so I rode with one today.  His name is Selwyn and he is from New Zealand.  He is by far the hardest of our foreigners to understand.  It was very interesting.  Here are some of my observations.  It has been my training over the years to push that bicycle about as hard as you can.  He actually rode pretty slow.  Especially up hills.  When I was following him, I was going so slow (3 mph) it was hard to stay up at times.  His bike has lower gears than my does and it allows him to spin faster while going slower.  As for Selwyn, he wasn’t afraid to get off the bike if the hill was real steep and walk the bike up.  I have a tendency to feel that “this hill is not going to beat me” mentality and I think at times that this attitude burns my legs out.  Selwyn is 61 and is a retired crime scene investigator in NZ.  He has traveled quite extensively and has ridden in Europe, South America and of course New Zealand.  It was an enjoyable day with him and when we arrived in camp, I felt better than any ride so far.  I guess there is something to learn.

I didn’t take many pictures today because we rode inland a bit and it is pretty much just green trees.  I am going to send a picture of a Fort Knox and another good picture.  Hope all is well with each of you.

Day 5 - First day to cook

We had a big day today.  We rode a total of 66 miles and had the same hills. We started at about 8:00 this morning and we all finished between 2:45 and 6:30 this afternoon/evening.  We are staying at a campground in Brunswick, Maine.  We spent the day going through all these port towns and the harbors in each of these towns were absolutely beautiful.  I didn’t have a lot of time to sightsee because today I was assigned to cook.  That means that I need to arrive fairly early to camp and me and another person (Bill from Massachusetts (we have three Bills)) go shopping for the dinner that we cook and we buy the items that will be needed for breakfast and lunch the next day.  We do carry the leftover food that doesn’t require refrigeration so we somewhat have to take an inventory of what we have the morning we cook.  We made this baked bean dish (with Bish’s baked beans, not cooked from scratch) and added chili sauce, onions, garlic and hamburger.  We also had salad and cookies for desert.  I learned a saying when I was in Korea that “hunger is the seasoning”.  Everyone thought the meal was delicious, but I attribute it more to the hunger.

I ran into some Mormon missionaries today.  That was kind of fun.  They were just wandering the streets of a little city that we rode through and I spent a few minutes talking to them about their experience and about Maine and the people and all.  They also seemed interested in the fact that we were all riding to Key West.

The tour tries to take us on roads that are away from the most traveled roads, but does try to take us to the scenic spots.  One drawback of that is the fact that the most busy roads are more leveled out.  The side roads have had no effort made to them to keep them level at all and the hills on some roads are steep.  I am carrying about 60 lbs. including the group gear and I tell you, sometimes it is all I can do to get to the top of the hill.  I am breathing like I am going to pop a lung.

Well I have my first Sunday School lesson.  Yesterday I wrote about breaking down.  I was so stressed about getting things fixed and getting done that day.  I ended up fitting things back together that I think makes the bike more sturdy and strong and today the bike handled so much better.  Before the rack in back would sway when I turned quickly and it was sometimes hard to keep the bike under control, but today it just seemed so much better.  You know God gives us trials in life and many times when we get through the rough time, we have made our life so much better because of the changes we made.  We maybe are cursing the problem at one time and look back and the problem ended up making things better.  Strange??

I need to hit the hay.  Everyone turns in pretty quickly in this group.  Goodnight.

First breakdown - Day 4

I am absolutely beat tonight, so this is going to be rather quick. We had a wonderful day today. We rode by Fort Knox so I was able to tour that and there is this city called Searsport, ME that used to be a big ship building city in the early eighteen hundreds and they had a maritime museum that was interesting. I was having a great day, but when I came out from the museum, I found that a bolt "that holds my back rack had broken and would no longer carry my load. There was a bike shop in town, but it was closed for the day so I went to an automotive repair shop and asked if they could get the broken end of the bolt out of an eyelet. They were too busy but they did let me use their tools to get things fixed. Anyway I was the last person to get back to camp but I think the bike is fixed.

I wish I could write more about the day and send a picture but no internet connection in the state park we are in. We rode 50 miles today and there were a lot of hills. These hills and carrying a out 60 lbs of gear is harder than i thought it would be. We are now in Camden, Maine.

We are headed South - Day 3

We are headed to Key West Florida!  We had quite the start.  It rained slightly throughout the night and then about when we were to get up and have breakfast (We eat breakfast at 7:00 and then everyone can take off at their own convenience) it just started pouring.  I had a stream going underneath my tent.  I really don’t know how it stayed dry, but it did.  We waited out the storm for about two hours.  It really turned out to be a beautiful day after that.  It is kind of cool here in Maine.  It feels like fall is coming but no change in the trees yet.

Today’s ride was about 40 miles.  I think the tour leader is trying to break us in slowly.  It was a really nice ride.  The roads we take are mostly side roads that are supposed to be traveled less, But there seems to be plenty of traffic on them.  We are now in a campground just outside of Orland, ME.  The rain and cool weather makes things so green.  The forests are just thick with vegetation.  There are few places that you can look over the horizon and see for miles unless you are looking out to the Atlantic Ocean.  Much different that southern Idaho where you can see pretty much forever.

Just a little about the people I am traveling with.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post about where the riders are from and a little about their ages.  It has been enjoyable to get to know them.  We have plenty of accents going on.  In addition to the Australian, New Zealand and English accents, there is a man here that was born and raised in Mexico, so he has quite an accent as well.  He is such an interesting man.  He was an engineer and then went back to school later in life and earned three masters degrees.  One was in counseling and now he is retired and just travels.  He has been to Europe and all over riding the bike.  He spends each night making a video journal of the day and posts it to the internet.  If I get a chance, I will put a link to it if you are interested.  He does have some great pictures.

I think the group seems to be working real well with each other.  We all seem to chip in and help and everyone seems to be getting along real well.  It is interesting how people are so unique.  I have been enjoying learning a little about their lives and what they have done throughout their life and all.  I have so much to learn about each, but I guess I have plenty of time.

I have a pretty slow connection to the internet tonight, so I will not be able to loan any pictures. It should be better tomorrow.

The Shakedown - Akadia National Park

We did our shake down today.  It was a ride through Acadia National Park.  It really is a beautiful park.  It is located on the same island that Bar Harbor is located on, Mount Desert Island.  The cliffs and ocean are just gorgeous.  The ride was only 35 miles,, but it was very hilly.  Some of the hills were actually pretty steep.  On the “shakedown”, we had to load everything as though we were traveling and just see if we can carry everything that needs to be carried and that all the equipment works.  It was a good thing.  A few of the riders headed back into Bar Harbor to get new gears on their bike or a trailer to pull their gear etc.  My bike seemed to work pretty well.  I do have a little shifting problem in lower gears.  It seems at one adjustment it will jump on the lowest gears and if I adjust for that it jumps on some higher gears.  I will keep messing with the bike.  One of the riders clocked the amount of climb that we did today and through the day, we climbed about 2,200 feet.  That was a little surprising to me that there are so many hills.

This afternoon, I tried to get a little religion in my day.  I think we will be riding every Sunday that I am on this trip.  I did have a nice study of the New Testament this afternoon.  I studied the “where much is given, much is required” teachings of Christ.

We have a 70% chance of rain tonight and thru the day tomorrow.  That will be really interesting to see how we do things in rain.  I just hope we can get things loaded before the rain comes.  Dave Cox, our tour leader, says that when it rains here, that at least it is still warm. He is from Idaho and knows when it rains in Idaho, it usually is freezing.

Tomorrow we begin the journey.  I am excited to get going.  I think we ride something like 40 miles, so it will be not much different from today.

Bar Harbor - Day 1

Well I am here in Bar Harbor.  Carey and I traveled to SLC on Friday to catch the plane and I spent pretty much the entire day traveling.  I got into Bangor Maine at 12:00 at night and then just went to the motel.

I took a shuttle into Bar Harbor this morning and got here about 1:00.  I had to go to the bike shop to pick up the bike that I shipped out here.  It arrived in great shape, which I was a little nervous about.  I had read some horror stories about how the bike was bent and all from shipping.  I had transferred already all my stuff from a suitcase and a box that I loaded on the plane to the panniers that I am carrying and just loaded the bike and took off to look over Bar Harbor a bit. I went down to the pier and had a little Maine Shrimp which was delicious.   It’s a pretty cool little town.  Cruise ships and stuff stop here and its pretty much a tourist trap.

The trip pretty much officially started at 4:00 this afternoon.  It was actually a bit later than that because the tour leader was in town shopping.  We are just camped at a camp ground outside Bar Harbor.  We had a pasta dinner tonight with chicken and veggies in it and it was really pretty good.  I was real interested in how and what we were going to be cooking here, so, so far, I am quite pleased.  We also had a little meeting on the rules of travel, like always wearing the helmet and obeying traffic laws and such.  One thing I was a little surprised at is they discourage us all from riding together.  They say that it is just too hard for traffic to get around us.  I was kind of hoping that I could just follow and not have to worry about following the maps.  We also talked a bit about how to read the maps and all.  It will be interesting.  I am hoping that I don’t get too lost.

Tomorrow we are going on a “shakedown” ride.  We are to get up and load just as if we are leaving, but we will return here.  We are going to ride through Acadia National Park which should be beautiful.  Well, I am going to put the sleeping gear to the test tonight.  I am sure it will be the same as when I went with the boy scouts camping.  You really don’t sleep well until you are a few days into it and you are completely exhausted. Goodnight!

Anxieties

Well, it is down to five days before I go.  I actually signed up for this trip in September of 2010.  I had thought about it many years before then.  Have you ever had something that you dreamed about that was so fun to think about and fantasize how great things would be, but when it actually came time to do it, you were worried it might not be what you thought it would be.  I think that is where I am.  I have been thinking, “What have I gotten myself into?”  “How can I take two months and leave my sweetheart?” “How can I leave my work and clients for two months?” “What if I can’t do this?” I am sure that all I need is to get this trip underway and I will settle down.

Last week has been busy in making preparations.  I sent my bike to Maine Fed Ex.  I used the same method when I went to Iowa in 2009 to ride RAGBRAI.  You always hope the bike gets there without being bent or smashed or something.  I also finished packing everything yesterday for the trip.  They do recommend that you keep things at a minimum in what you bring.  I look at the things I packed and wonder how I am going to get by for two months.  I have three changes of riding cloths, two changes of other cloths, a fleece jacket and a riding jacket and then just stuff for the bike (an extra tire and spokes, oil, chain links etc.) and camping gear.  It all weighs about 45 lbs. and that is within the guidelines that are recommended.  I have carried it all as I trained for this trip and even though it is very different riding a fully loaded bike, I seemed to handle it ok. 

Overall, I think I am ready physically and I will get through emotionally as well.  When I next write, I will at least be on my way!  I have looked at the weather this next week in Bar Harbor and it is supposed to be raining.  Quit being so anxious, right??